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Mistakes

I found this paperback in a used book store. In The Art of Possibility, artist Rosamund Stone Zander and conductor Benjamin Zander touch on core issues of creativity and passion and offer practical ways to sustain a spark day after day, even when faced with difficult circumstances or unwilling teammates.

First of all, the Zanders recommend, make mistakes. Take risks.

Benjamin Zander says composer Igor Stravinsky once turned down a bassoon player “because he was too good to render the perilous opening of The Rite of Spring. This heart-stopping moment, conveying the first crack in the cold grip of the Russian winter, can only be truly represented if the player has to strain every fiber of his technical resources to accomplish it. A bassoon player for whom it was easy would miss the expressive point.”

Stravinsky reportedly said, “I don’t want the sound of someone playing this passage. I want the sound of someone TRYING to play it!” Let's make more mistakes.

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